Canarsie Man Indicted On 211 Counts Of Identity Theft, Fraud

A Canarsie resident was allegedly engaged in identity theft in order to purchase a group of credit cards and ring up a total of $67,000 in bank withdrawals and other charges, accord-ing to Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes.

Kevin Griffith, 27, was indicted on August 31 on 211 counts of fraud and identity theft, a spokesman for Hynes said.

The indictment charges that on nine occasions Griffith contacted Chase Manhattan Bank using the name of an account holder and requested that a new card be mailed to his home ad-dress, allegedly telling the bank representative that he was at a new address because his previous house had burned down. The suspect had the account holders' social security numbers, account numbers and addresses.

Later, Griffith allegedly opened other new accounts using the same scam.

Hynes' spokesman, Jerry Schmet-terrer, said that once the suspect obtained the credit cards, he used them to get cash advances ranging from $45 to $6,000 and to make purchases as large as nearly $7,500 to rent a car. One report indicated he even charged a bill of $5.16 at a Wendy's Restaurant.

"Griffith was caught on video surveillance using the fake credit cards at five stores in Brooklyn," Schmetterrer said. "The investigation revealed he had also used the cards in Manhattan, where he was caught on video four times." The spokesman said Griffith was also indicted in the Manhattan cases.

Griffith is charged with grand larceny in the second degree, 14 counts of grand larceny in the third degree, 16 counts of identity theft in the first degree and numerous other larceny and identity theft counts, according to the indictment report.